Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle, Sunset Limited…American trains are grand

Amtrak's big beasts took us safely and speedily across the vast expanse of the American West

Looking out of the big picture windows of Amtrak Southwest Chief's viewing car. All photos: Rashmee Roshan Lall

While on our train trip across the American southwest news came that France was trying to get serious about climate change and had banned short-haul flights.

The idea apparently is that if a journey takes less than two-and-a-half hours by train, you don’t get to fly.

Fair enough. Except that Bloomberg reports that the ban will apply to a grand total of just three routes. According to one estimate, it will affect just three per cent of France’s mainland domestic flight emissions, Bloomberg says.

That’s when France, more than America, could easily and realistically push travellers towards trains rather than planes, Bloomberg noted. It has high speed rail, while the US train system is arcane, “relying on bridges and tunnels built in the days when exhausted donkeys pulled rickety carts over and through them”.

That’s a bit of an exaggeration. On multiple journeys — from Chicago’s pala…